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Recommendation 1963 (2011) Final version
Combating poverty
1. The Parliamentary Assembly, referring
to its Resolution 1800
(2011) on combating poverty, recalls that it is convinced
that Council of Europe member states should uphold their commitments
to secure fundamental rights and freedoms for all.
2. The Assembly considers that governments should take further
steps towards the ratification of the relevant European treaties,
in particular those that can have a direct impact on the situation
of people affected by poverty.
3. The Assembly therefore wishes to reiterate the importance
of implementing the provisions enshrined in Article 30 of the European
Social Charter (revised) (the Charter, ETS No. 163) to ensure “the
effective exercise of the right to protection against poverty and
social exclusion”. Member states are called upon “to take measures
within the framework of an overall and co-ordinated approach to
promote the effective access of persons who live, or risk living,
in a situation of social exclusion or poverty, as well as their
families, to, in particular, employment, housing, training, education,
culture and social and medical assistance”.
4. The Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers:
4.1. take all necessary measures
to promote the ratification and implementation of the European Social
Charter (revised) and its protocols and to enable supervision of
the implementation of the Charter (revised) under Article C thereof,
including through the collective complaints procedure;
4.2. ensure, in particular, that Article 30 of the European
Social Charter (revised) becomes part of its core provisions under
Article A, paragraph 1.b,
enabling policy formulation and progress review in combating poverty.
All Council of Europe member states should agree to be bound by
the provisions of Article 30;
4.3. ask member states to duly take into account the Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR)
Principles and Guidelines for a Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction
Strategies in their public policy making and relevant budgetary
decisions;
4.4. promote the signature, ratification and implementation
of the Council of Europe social rights protection instruments, in
addition to the European Social Charter (revised), namely:
4.4.1. the European Convention on Social Security (ETS No. 78),
the Supplementary Agreement on the Application thereof (ETS No.
78A), and its Protocol (ETS No. 154);
4.4.2. the European Code of Social Security (revised) (ETS No.
139);
4.5. review the current structure of its programme of activities
to improve the co-ordination of current measures and to introduce,
as necessary, transversal actions aimed at combating poverty and improving
access to all human rights – civil, political, economic, social
and cultural − for people affected by poverty;
4.6. take measures to strengthen the Council of Europe’s capacity
to develop evidence-based policies and programmes, including measures
to conduct comparative analyses of poverty and social exclusion indicators
across member states, in addition to the current Mutual Information
System on Social Protection of the Council of Europe (MISSCEO);
4.7. ensure that its policies and programmes in the field of
poverty and social exclusion take into account the gender dimension;
4.8. take measures to ensure the availability of and regular
comparison of relevant gender-disaggregated data, such as minimum
wage or equivalent instruments, and work (employment) benefits, in
those Council of Europe member states which are not member states
of the European Union, providing substantive ground for future policy
making;
4.9. take urgent action to implement specific transversal measures
aimed particularly at protecting the rights of families, children,
women, people with disabilities, the elderly, and people from minority
and migrant communities in situations of poverty, granting them
the right to family reunion and the possibility of a normal family
life;
4.10. design and establish non-bureaucratic, accessible and
effective institutions such as a poverty ombudsperson, to whom people
living in poverty can address their concerns, opinions and demands;
4.11. take due account of the forthcoming biennial debate in
the Parliamentary Assembly on the state of human rights and social
rights in Europe and provide an update on the measures taken to
safeguard the human rights of people affected by poverty, for example
on the monitoring of the progress made in combating poverty in 2013,
prior to such debates.